On June 26, 2016, more than 1,800 people from 22 states came together at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to celebrate the 20th annual family reunion of the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment. Nearly all of the children in attendance were prenatally diagnosed with a life threatening birth defect, and either underwent fetal surgery to treat the condition before birth or received highly complex care immediately after birth. This video captures highlights from that fun, inspiring day as we celebrated all of our amazing families.
Transcript
CHOP Fetal Family Reunion 2016
Lori Howell: I'd like to welcome you to our 20th annual Fetal Family Reunion. It's just remarkable, it's remarkable.
N. Scott Adzick: We wouldn't be here today for the celebration if it wasn't for all of you and when I look around this big tent, it's easy to say, once again, this is my favorite day of the year. It is our teams’ favorite day of the year and we aspire for this to be the favorite day of the year for everyone here.
Male: We came all the way out here from Omaha, Nebraska.
Female: From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Female: We came out here from Rahway, New Jersey.
Female: Cleveland, Ohio.
N. Scott Adzick: This is the 20th Fetal Family reunion. Since that time, we've had over 18,000 referrals of pregnant mothers, carrying babies with birth defects. But it's great to see patients again; the oldest patient is 20 years of age here. Kids are going to college now. Then, you have the little babies too who are just cute as a button.
Female: This day is so important to us because it represents the life that this, this staff, this hospital gave our daughter. We were told that she'd be in a wheelchair, that she'd had severe brain damage, and we came here to CHOP and they gave our daughter a life that wasn't supposed to happen.
Female patient: I haven't met my doctors that saved me and so I kinda wanted to meet them.
Audrey's mom: Audrey's actually going to really meet her doctors and surgeons that closed her spine while I was still pregnant.
Male child: I was the 57th kid to have fetal surgery. We always talk to the person that held me first and she handed me to my mom. So like we always take a picture and like I'm like as tall as them now.
Male: We're just so thankful that she's alive. We came here last year on about a day’s notice and they saved her life; she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for CHOP and Dr. Adzick and Dr. Moldenhauer and the rest of the CHOP team.
Female: I have never seen hospital who would invite all of us on one day to come and be with each other. So I think this is a great opportunity for us to come back and really see what we've been through and how far we've come.
Female: This is amazing. I actually almost cried when we were walking in just to see other children, other families who went through what we went through.
Female: It's so amazing to see that our life, our daughter’s life is not the only life that has been changed drastically because of this program.
Female: We sat down next to another family that had a baby that had an SCT the month after me, you know. And to see the … some of the first patients, to see how much they're thriving, it's just great.
Female: You come in, you get treated like royalty.
Male: The care we've gotten here is just unparalleled to … compared to anywhere we've been before.
Male: There is no other place like this on earth.
Female: We're just so grateful for CHOP.
Male: I thank them every day for these two.
Male: If it wasn't for the team, there's no way that we'd be holding her right now and she'd be here.
Female: I thank God for him because she wouldn't be here, I don't know; he's great.
Female: I hope that they continue for many years doing this because they have no idea what it means to all the families. I mean, forever.
Topics Covered: Fetal Surgery
Related Centers and Programs: Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit, The Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Celebrates 20 Years